


Eyes

by Maybethings



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-21
Updated: 2013-09-21
Packaged: 2018-01-14 13:24:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1268017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maybethings/pseuds/Maybethings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Arvaarad of the 37th karataam remembers eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> The Arvaarad of the 37th isn't a canon character, but you will find mention of him in the Alphabet of the Sten ([M is for Mages](http://archiveofourown.org/works/364487/chapters/616358)).

The Arvaarad of the 37th karataam remembered eyes, in particular: the stern, penetrating silver gaze of the Arishok he served under; those of a recent lover, pupils dark pools ringed with deep green as they lay together; the violet eyes of a boy burned by a saarebas newly turned, frightened and confused.

Most of all he remembered the blue.

A somewhat wilful child, he had sneaked a peek out a qunlok window during a Tevinter raid. Outside was a keeper and his pack, falling upon the enemy as a single entity. One of the saarebas had a cracked mask. Half its big, blunt face was exposed to the light, that eye watering from an excess of light and air and even from there he could see—

It was blue,  _blue_ , like a summer sky, like a kingfisher’s back, like the ocean shelves where swift, variegated fish swam among corals of equal brilliance. He had never seen anything like it, and never would again.

But it was the look in the saarebas’ eyes, too, that stayed with the young boy: frightened, terribly frightened, replete with fear and power, yet unwilling to let its brothers and leaders die to the enemy. Determined to resist the struggle. Determined to prevail.

The Arvaarad of the 37th remembered eyes, and he never saw a pair  _more_ Qunari than those of the saarebas with its… _his_  broken mask. Magic may have taken away the control of a man—that was where the shepherd’s work lay—but to allow it to take away his soul, also? Never.


End file.
